


THE MIRACLE WORKER

by vanhunks



Series: CHRISTMAS MIRACLES [4]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 22:33:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8818756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanhunks/pseuds/vanhunks
Summary: Nearing Christmas and seven year old Katie Janeway lies critically ill. Chakotay races against time to find a cure. Fourth story in the "CHRISTMAS MIRACLES" series.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Paramount owns the characters Janeway and Chakotay.

* * *

 PART ONE

 

_The world in solemn stillness lay_

_to hear the angels sing_

 

Admiral Adam Ponsonby gave a small sigh the moment he entered the hospital room. A familiar picture greeted him. A scene that hadn't changed in the last few days. Three days, seven hours and seven minutes to be exact.

Seven minutes. Time was passing by with inexorable certainty. Seven minutes would become eight, nine, ten… Each second ticking away making miracles more and more distant, as far away as the furthest star. Kathryn, Gretchen, Phoebe, most of Kathryn's former crew… All of them fraught with concern, sinking into deep vigil with Kathryn, praying, meditating, hoping against hope that the distant star will grow larger and move closer to them.

Could angels bend near the earth and instead of their harps, touch them all? Could they? Adam wondered as he tiptoed forward. They needed a miracle, like Kathryn had prayed for one three years ago. They had all thought that they had received the fullness of it when Katie came into their lives and loved them,  given to Kathryn on a lonely Christmas eve.

Now it was Katie herself who needed intervention…

_Where are those angels?_

If he touched Kathryn he knew he'd feel how stiff her body had become from leaning over the child in one position for endless hours. If he touched her he would feel her desolation as the hours rolled by and brought them no closer to a miracle.

"Kathryn, honey…" he said, his voice tender, yet cautious. He reached out to her, his hand hovering by her shoulder. Another sigh as he dropped his hand to his side.

"I'm not leaving her…" Kathryn's voice  floated to him. She sounded exhausted, edgy, her voice barely above a whisper. But Gretchen had ordered him to relieve Kathryn for a few hours and he wasn't going to back down again.

"Come. You require rest," he told her gently, this time touching her shoulder and easing her away from the small figure on the bed. Her body resisted, reluctant to move away - a reluctance that was brief, yet pained as Kathryn succumbed to his kindness, his own voice, he knew, gritty from worry.

Kathryn turned towards him, her eyes dark, sunken. He saw the question long before her mouth opened, a question asked with the regularity of a ticking clock. "H-how long, still?"

"A day, perhaps a little longer. The serum will be transported here as soon as Chakotay is within range."

He wanted to die a little bit as hope flared in her eyes again, a terrible hope that, he despaired himself, would destroy Kathryn if it could not be assuaged.

Kathryn gave a forlorn little sob, clamping her hand against her mouth to stifle it. He saw the trembling fingers, the lips that quivered, the eyes that had become empty of tears. They had brought a second bed in the room when Katie had taken ill and neither Kathryn nor Gretchen had wanted to leave Katie. They had taken turns taking naps on the second bed. Very firmly he led Kathryn to the adjoining bed and made her lie down on it. He gave an inward sigh of relief. This time Kathryn's resistance, her obstinate refusal to rest, had given way, even if for a few hours only, for much needed rest. He pulled the cover that had lain neatly folded at the end of the bed, over her. Another sob escaped her.

"It will be too late…"

"No, honey. Chakotay will come. Please, try to sleep…"

"I can't, Dad."

His heart burned. He was not Kathryn and Phoebe's father, had married their mother just before Voyager had returned to Earth. Two lonely people who pooled their loneliness and so waited together for a long lost daughter. Kathryn and Phoebe had welcomed him into their hearts, were happy that their mother was happy again. Once, not so long ago, he had told her he felt privileged to be called "Dad".

Now his stepdaughter looked unhinged, stripped of her usual military deportment and exposing a mother who would die if her child died.

He wished for a moment that he could just administer her something to make her fall asleep instantly. But the last three days Kathryn had broken through her own stupor, too worried, too strung up and strung out to sleep. Then she would sit down in the chair by Katie's bed and stare at the child, unblinking, just staring. Kathryn, he knew, was dangerously near collapse.

He touched her cheek. It felt cold, strained. Her eyes closed, flew open, then slowly drifted close again. It was an uneasy, restless slumber, the first Kathryn had taken in almost forty eight hours.

Adam turned to the other bed and sat down on the chair Kathryn vacated earlier. He touched the almost translucent skin of the little girl lying deathly still, too weak to fight the terrible disease that had struck her down. Eyes, hair, a smile that turned every heart to mush, Katie had a remarkable resemblance to her mother.

Katie Janeway. 

Everybody's darling child. Three days to Christmas, three days to her seventh birthday.

A breath of life that had come into their lives, into his own life that had once been lonely and cheerless until Gretchen Janeway had taken pity on him. Now, he had a new family, built upon the ashes of his past, everything he had lost and thought he would never regain.

He could call a little girl his grandchild.

"And Grampy, when are you going to take me to the Smithsonian to see Zephram Cochrane's Phoenix?"

Katie, the image of her mother, would look at him with those large eyes, alive with pleasure and expectation.

"Soon…"

"It had better be soon, Grampy, else Miral and her Grandpa Paris will beat us to it…"

He had closed up his office and told his aide he would be incommunicado for a day. He was taking his grandchild to experience the history of first contact. Katie who soaked up information with so much ease. Katie who visited him in his office after school "because you're the best Grampy ever." Everything that was great and fun and wondrous and challenging ended in "ever".

"Grampy, the underground caves on Mars are the best ever!"

"Grampy, did you know that Uncle Tom designed the Delta Flyer? He's the best pilot ever…after Daddy, of course."

"Miral and I are going to sleep over by Aunt Phoebe. We're having a pyjama party."

"The best ever?"

"Oh, yes""

That child lay on the bed before him, hardly moving, hardly breathing, dying. A child in her class had returned ill from a short vacation with her parents. It spread quickly, hit the most fragile in constitution first. Most escaped – Vulcan, K'tarian, Klingon children. By the time they had contained the spread of the disease,  one  in Katie's class had died, a terrible blow to her parents. Several other human children had become sick, but their particular physiology saved them as they naturally built their own antibodies. None of which could help Katie or the other two little ones also on the critical list. Katie had had a slight cold, had insisted she hadn't wanted to miss class because "else Miral will get higher marks, Daddy…" she had told her father.

Even tracing the virus to its source - pollen from an alien plant on a planetoid in the Exxor System, could not offer the cure they were seeking.

They had tried everything.

And Kathryn had been filled with silent dementia that she'd lose the child who had come into her life only three years ago. A child she and Chakotay created, but borne by Seven of Nine.

Seven of Nine, dead.

Seven of Nine, the key to their plight, the miracle they hoped for.

But the former Borg, wife of Chakotay had died four years ago. Yet, it was a mention of her after they had exhausted every possibility of a cure that had taken Chakotay on a mercy dash to Ketarcha Prime. A journey that would have killed Katie had he taken her with him. Her body was simply too weak, too debilitated for extended travel.

So Chakotay had gone alone.

Voyager's former EMH kept the children in a state of deep unconsciousness. While they weren't getting any better, their lives were literally put on hold, who told them that he could only keep them in that state for one more day.

"It may be our only hope," Chakotay had told them, his lips dry, his eyes as sunken as his wife's. The terror lay close to the surface but it was Chakotay who took charge, who assured Kathryn that he would return with a cure. "There must be something. There must be," he repeated his words with fervour. "Even if I have to…" Chakotay had left with those words hanging heavy. They knew what he meant.

Katie had been awake only once and that had been to tell her mother that it was going to be her birthday soon, that she had to help with the tree and the trimmings and arrange the presents under the tree. After that Katie had closed her eyes, sinking into deep unconsciousness, her body ravaged by fever.

Adam lifted the sick child's bony hand and pressed his lips against the back of it.

And he prayed, "Oh, that the angels will bend near the earth this day…"

*****

END PART ONE

 

PART TWO

**On Almor IV**

Chakotay landed his shuttle close to the wreckage of the type 9 Federation vessel. He couldn't breathe, the air inside him tight, ready to be ignited into a ball of fire that even in its conception alone already burned through him.

He was ready to explode. Explode to free him from his despair, the angst, the persistent feeling of racing against an unseen clock. From time to time Kathryn's face flashed before him and then he'd close his eyes to her agony which left her stripped of all control. Her eyes that begged silently, that seemed to contain the prayers of the ages at the thought of losing her beloved child.

The wreckage lay partially exposed, and he could see it clearly as he started walking towards it. Why had he remembered so late? How had he forgotten in the first place? A search of their old home in the first city of Ketarcha Prime left him deflated, his despair growing, the pleading of Kathryn's eyes haunting and the plaintive "Daddy…? from little Katie haunting him, eating him alive when he couldn't find a single clue. The Science Council couldn't help either. Seven had left them with nothing except her scientific research.

Now it might be too late. Annika's shuttle was her life, her little home away from the home she knew on Ketarcha. It was the only place he could think of that could deliver them all from their misery. If he lost Katie, he would never forgive himself. His last communication with Starfleet Medical was two days ago, and only to hear that Katie's condition remained unchanged. It wasn't worsening and in that alone he took some comfort.

Sleep had come to him in short spurts, woken by the constant agonising worry. He tried to remain awake as long as he could, afraid to close his eyes again, afraid to confront the terrifying truth – Katie was no longer with them.

Uttering a pained cry, he ran the last few metres to the wreckage, allowing himself the luxury of remembering Annika's death, her last days and her completely casual statement that she wanted to leave Katie something to remember her by when she was dead. Another memory that had lain dormant, submerged under layers of remorse and the guilt that he had stopped loving Annika, the even greater realisation that Kathryn Janeway's spirit had been a constant in his life.

Kathryn, the real mother of their daughter, who had taken both of them when she didn't have to three years ago, on a night that she had prayed for a miracle, asking only that she be happy again.

A little girl lay dying, the child he and Kathryn conceived, the child Annika Hansen bore with so much pride, loved by the severe former Borg woman.

He may be too late.

That thought hurtled him against the wreckage, two pieces that lay metres apart. His chest burned fiercely as he clambered over rocks into the aft section. He marvelled that it had remained uncorroded by nature. The aft section contained the bunks, the panels behind which were stored the envirosuits, life support, the medical kits… It was the med-kit he needed, or something that contained what he was looking for… Annika had enhanced the capacity of the shuttle's medical support. Any clues, anything that might help them, would he there.

When he had been informed of the crash, he simply assumed that the shuttle had been destroyed completely. He had never thought to investigate… The Ketarchan authorities had returned with Annika's body, informing him that it wasn't necessary to go there himself. Annika had travelled everywhere with a reserve of her nanoprobes.

 _"So that Katie may one day be helped…"_   He could hear her words, racing towards him now that the fog of his dimmed memory had been lifted. Why had he forgotten them and why had he never come to inspect the wreckage immediately after her death? Had Annika known? The questions, most of them unanswered, ran through his mind.

Then his tricorder, activated, started flickering.

"What the…?" Chakotay muttered softly as he turned, pointing the tricorder to the front section of the shuttle wreck. Frowning, he headed towards the source of the signal. With growing astonishment he stared at the conn area, destroyed in parts, the floor and bulkheads still bearing the stains of Annika's blood. Thoughts of her last moments assailed him, the terror of her dying. "She was still alive…" he whispered to himself.

And not killed instantly as he had believed, even if she survived for a few minutes only.

He bent down, the source of the signal barely visible under the debris. Down on his knees he went, to retrieve the instrument.

"Oh…spirits…" he exclaimed in a low, hoarse voice as he held the dust covered PADD Annika had used.

He had never enquired about it. Never. He closed his eyes, trying to blink back the tears. Seven had sent a distress signal via the official Ketarchan signatures. He had been on a different short mission, little Katie cared for by the neighbours who had become their friends. He hadn't known of the accident until the Ketarchan Council informed him…

Annika's PADD, a personal Federation instrument had never been traced by the Ketarchan authorities. They wouldn't have traced it. Their only concern had been to rescue Seven of Nine, their most senior science officer.

_She left it switched on for me to find…_

His insides exploded as guilt welled up in him. He started reading a message.

_My dearest Chakotay…_

_I am dying. My time in this realm is short, too short to tell you everything of what you have meant to me. Know that I have loved you deeply and that I understand that your love for me has grown less and less. I do not blame you, nor can I ever begrudge you any future happiness._

_My concern is for our daughter Kathryn. I wish to leave her a legacy, something that might one day be used should she be in a life threatening situation._

_I have nothing else to give our little girl, Chakotay, except my nanoprobes and perhaps a memory or two. She was never mine but I have loved her with all my heart. I need for you to know that, even if it seemed to you that I may have been too detached to love her without condition or freely._

_I will be only a fading memory to her, but will you do this for me, just this? I have created a small stasis port into which I've stored seven phials of my nanoprobes. In the aft section…_

He rushed out and across the dusty rocks to where the aft section stuck out of the ground and began furiously digging and scooping away sand.

_In the aft section, beneath the bunk you will find the small stasis chamber I've installed. There will be the lifesaving devices should Katie or you or Admiral Janeway ever require it. It is all I have left to give and I give it with love…_

Chakotay stared at the kit containing the phials and closed his eyes, allowing a few minutes in which his body wracked with sobs. He cried because Annika was dead, because he had never shed a tear for her. Now three years later he realised how lonely she had been, how even in her dying moments she had thought only of those whom she loved. He understood that she hadn't ever spoken about it, for Annika Hansen, married to him for three years, thought her hold on his love tenuous, too afraid that she would lose them.

Now he could go home and save his daughter, through her birth mother Seven of Nine.

*****

END PART TWO

 

PART THREE

Kathryn woke with a start and with a sense of doom.

"Katie!" she cried out, sliding off the bed.

"Kathryn, honey, please – "

Kathryn's face creased, her eyes spilling as Gretchen Janeway tried to hold her, blocking her view of the child on the bed.

"Mom…?"

Distressed beyond herself, Kathryn pushed her mother away from her and stared down at the unconscious Katie. Pressing her hand to her mouth, Kathryn tried to breathe calmly, the relief that Katie showed no change flooding her.

"The EMH is making sure Katie remains breathing, honey, until Chakotay has arrived."

"It may be too late – "

"I haven't known you to envision a worse case scenario, honey. Chakotay will do his best. You'll see."

Kathryn held her mother's gaze for long moments, then nodded mutely, still too numb at what was happening, at the thought that her little girl might die. Breaking eye contact, Kathryn turned to sit down on the chair, sighing deeply as she kissed Katie's cheek first.

"Mom…"

"Sweetheart?"

Kathryn felt her mother's hand on her shoulder, took great comfort that Gretchen was there with her. Her own hand rested over her mother's. Without looking up, she began talking, softly.

"Katie is my life, Mom. Three years ago when I saw her for the first time, I didn't know that my heart could overflow with so much love. She's mine…"

"I know, honey. You told us of your great deed to help Chakotay and Seven of Nine…"

"There wasn't a day that I didn't think of my child. It was there, in my conscious, always a simmering presence, that somewhere a little girl with hair like my own may be walking, taking her first steps, saying her first words… She was mine and she wasn't…" 

Kathryn's voice sounded forlorn. "I accepted that she wasn't for me to raise, that I gave my best friend the gift of a child. I had…to…accept…it…" The words trembled like little pebbles rolling downwards reluctantly. Her throat became thick, the tears started forming in her eyes. Battling to retain control, she wiped at her cheeks, an ineffectual gesture as her hand came away damp.

"But I couldn't forget her… I didn't know what she looked like, never wanted to know, Mom. I sent them away, to live where I wouldn't have to run into them, banished them from Earth. And then…"

With tear-filled eyes Kathryn raised her face to look at her mother.

Gretchen Janeway smiled tenderly. In her eyes too, there were tears. "And then, Kathryn, Chakotay came home, to bring you your little girl, and for us the grandchild we have all come to love. He knew that Katie deserved to know you…"

"That night I had become demented with grief, with loneliness, with knowing that I would never have the privilege of knowing  little Katie. I – "

"Prayed for a miracle…"

"Yes," Kathryn replied softly. "Yes, I prayed for a miracle. I just wanted to be happy again…"

Kathryn felt her mother's hand on her shoulder, a reassuring gesture. Another deep sob escaped her. Katie lay, barely breathing. She wasn't aware of their presence. The EMH had made sure that she was still alive when Chakotay came. But how long could Katie remain in this state? She was still so small, too small for her age. In two days it would be Christmas…

"And you were granted your miracle…" Kathryn heard her mother say.

"Yes…" There was a long pause in which Kathryn lifted her daughter's small hand and pressed her lips against it. She kept her eyes closed, the urge to cry again overwhelming. "Oh, Chakotay…where are you…?"

***** 

"Kathryn?"

Kathryn woke sluggishly, lifted her head from the bed with difficulty. Her body was stiff. How long had she slept? She looked up. It was her stepfather.

"Adam…"

"Come, honey. You need some fresh air – "

"Chakotay?"

A pause, an uncomfortable pause in which Admiral Adam Ponsonby's eyes shifted to avoid meeting her gaze. Kathryn felt a punch to her bosom, the air leaving her lungs, leaving her winded. Her heart raced with fear.

"Chakotay?" she asked again, afraid to hear the answer.

"He's been held up, dear, and – "

"No…no… He promised us…me…"

"I know, honey. He was caught in an ion storm leaving the Almor System. He's delayed by twelve hours."

"We can't leave Katie in this condition! She's already skin and bone. She'll die. She'll die!"

Kathryn swung back to lift Katie into her arms, cradling the child like a little baby too weak to move. She sat on the bed, rocking Katie. "I can't lose her…not again. Not again…"

Admiral Ponsonby stood for a few moments rooted to the spot, the tableau of mother and child intensely moving. A nerve in his jaw twitched. A few moments he stood, then he turned on his heel and left the room.

Kathryn wasn't aware that he was gone. Distraught at losing her child, she lay down on the narrow bed and cradled the child to her, her lips pressed against Katie's burning forehead.

*****

END PART THREE

 

PART FOUR

He'd been caught in ion storms before. Then it had been the urgency of making sure his away team were safe, however long it took. They'd get back to the ship, dry off their clothes in a manner of speaking and assume their respective duties, the storm forgotten and the incident replaced by contemplating the next emergency.

This time, there was no time. His shuttle rocked, tossed and was sent into a spin. He had cursed more times than he could remember, seeing flashes of a deadly ill Katie, a seriously worried Kathryn and her parents, her sister, his sister and cousin, waiting for him.

Relying on him. Cursing one last time, he maneuvered his vessel out of danger. He had at least two cracked ribs. The sudden lurch hours before when he had been thrown out of his chair and flung against the rear bunk had left him reeling, losing consciousness for what seemed like hours. Then he had gotten to his feet, groggy and nauseous, then resumed piloting the shuttle again. No signals. He couldn't let anyone know and so lost hours of drifting aimlessly in space until he had regained consciousness.

He was in a hurry and that had cost him.

Now hours later, he was at last within transporter range. He couldn't breathe, every intake of breath causing a bout of coughing, the pain excruciating. He had to make it in time. His daughter's life depended on it, and so his own and Kathryn's. Kathryn he knew, would be lost if she lost Katie again.

"She's my life, Chakotay. I can't lose her. She's so little to be so sick…"

And then the tenuous lifeline he had thrown, the idea striking him like a bolt of lightning. The next thought, that he could kick himself a hundred times for not having thought of it long ago. Like years ago. They had all stood shocked after they were told that there was nothing that could be done anymore, no Earth medicines that could help. The doctor had expressed a thought, that Icheb was too far away in the Delta Quadrant and Annika Hansen was dead. Just that.

"Kathryn…"

His tone ignited the hope in her; her eyes lit up and she had looked so pitifully expectant.

"Chakotay? Y-you know of something?"

"Annika…when she died… I never did check…"

Kathryn had sensed instantly what he had meant. Was it only hours ago or four, five days? How long?

Kathryn's voice had been soft, struck with mingled hope and awe as she whispered, "Annika's nanoprobes…"

"And Icheb is too far away to make it here in time. But it's a long shot, Kathryn, one that I should at least investigate. If I don't…"

They had left his unspoken words unspoken, the very uttering of the reality too much to bear. A second child had died and Katie was on the critical list. Katie and two children in her class. Another girl and a boy. He had given Kathryn a hard, desperate kiss before leaving Earth.

His console beeped suddenly in response to his hail.

The face of Voyager's EMH appeared in his viewscreen. A face with deep furrows on the forehead.

"Captain Chakotay," the doctor started, "I hope you have good news. The little boy, I'm afraid, didn't make it. Your daughter and Lenice Craf are still clinging to life – "

"Doctor, I'm sorry to hear that. But yes, I have managed to retrieve a cache. It's ready for transport, on my mark…"

Chakotay entered the co-ordinates and seconds later, the case dematerialised. It was the furthest distance from which they could transport the valuable nanoprobes without compromising them.

"Captain, don't worry. When you arrive, your daughter will be asking you if you brought the angel with you…"

He smiled for the first time, the smile turning into a grimace when a wave of pain hit him in the chest. He doubled over. By the time the pain subsided, the doctor's face had long disappeared from the viewscreen.

Minutes later and one shot from the hypospray he retrieved from the med-kit, he felt better. Sighing, he settled back and continued on a course for Earth, at maximum warp. He closed his eyes and saw, as if in a vision, Annika Hansen as she had looked when he had first proposed to her. A face through which the radiance had broken and transformed her so much that his heart had swelled with love for her.

A face almost angelic, a face that smiled a benign, affectionate smile.

As if Annika Hansen had known that the time to help someone on Earth had come to pass at last. She was at peace.

Chakotay's eyes burned.

"Thank you, Annika… Thank you…"

***********

Gretchen and Adam Ponsonby entered the hospital room, their hearts lighter, filled with renewed hope. Kathryn lay fast asleep with Katie in her arms. Although the bed was narrow, they could see how Kathryn held the little girl – she would never let her fall off the bed.

"Kathryn, honey, wake up," Gretchen whispered close to her.

Kathryn stirred, then her eyes flew open.

"Chakotay…?"

Gretchen smiled tenderly as she helped Kathryn off the bed and Adam settled Katie again on her back.

"He's made it, honey. The EMH will be here in a few minutes with the treatment. Katie and Lenice will recover."

Kathryn nodded mutely as they waited for the EMH. She kept holding Katie's limp hand in hers and for a few seconds her body wracked with sobs. When she became calm again, she gazed at them.

"Thank you, Mom, Adam. Katie will live because of the mother who gave birth to her…"

"Does Katie…?" Gretchen began, letting the question linger.

"We told her a few months ago, enough for her to digest for now. She is aware of the facts…"

"Well," Adam began, "I don't suppose we can haul you away from your little girl, Kathryn. But your mother and I will be in the waiting rooms until the EMH has completed the treatment. Oh, here he is now…"

The EMH rushed past Adam and Gretchen.

"Admiral Ponsonby, why don't you and your wife remain in the room? This won't take long. The patient will be awake within minutes and thereafter she can be taken home to recuperate. I believe it will be her birthday on Christmas day… Why yes, I did tell them that more than seven years ago. It will be a Christmas baby. Yes – "

"Doctor…"

The EMH, halted in his running commentary, gave Kathryn a grin before beginning to work on Katie. There was complete silence in the room while he was busy with the child. Still, Kathryn wouldn't let go of Katie's hand.

"Admiral, do you mind…?"

Kathryn let go of Katie's hand very reluctantly.

Kathryn's heart thumped wildly. Katie looked emaciated, skin and bone, translucence that signalled fragility in an already fragile and delicate child. The morning after Katie had arrived in her home and her lonely heart, she had stood before Kathryn with tears in her eyes, asking the question, "Am I not the daughter of Kathryn Janeway?" Chakotay had used his considerable patience to calm the child and had, in the years following, often wanted to curse Seven of Nine for burdening the child with knowledge that was too soon for her to digest. But Kathryn could understand Seven's heart. Not for want of loving Katie, Seven had merely made a statement of fact, even if it were to Katie's delicate ears. She was convinced that Seven of Nine had loved Katie with all her heart.

Chakotay would be with them only tomorrow and she couldn't wait to see him, that he see Katie recovered from her illness. It was still two days to Christmas and they'd spend it in Indiana according to tradition. They couldn't put up the tree. Katie had already become sick and any thought of doing fun things had to be shifted aside.

Her daughter was a bright little girl who constantly competed with Miral Paris. Although Miral was months older, they were in the same class. Miral, mercifully, hadn't been affected by the virus that struck down three children and while some recovered quickly, Katie and Lenice were unable to fight the disease. Their constitutions had been too delicate. Now a miracle had happened and Annika Hansen, died fours years ago, could still help to save lives.

Adam had spoken earlier to her of angels bending near the earth.

Indeed.

Kathryn was alerted to a soft moan coming from the bed. Her mother and Adam stood instantly nearer.

"Doctor?"

"There, she's regaining consciousness. My work here is done, Admiral. The nanoprobes should do their work over the next few hours. Keep the little one still, mind you. I have another patient to see…"

The EMH was out before Kathryn could thank him. Three pairs of eyes stared anxiously at Katie Janeway. She was still very ill, but now, thankfully, going to recover from the deadly disease. Kathryn touched Katie's cheek gently. She felt the tears rolling down her own cheeks as Katie opened her eyes slowly. At first she stared straight up at the ceiling. Then she turned her head and her eyes met with Kathryn's.

Katie remained staring at her mother for long moments. She had been unconscious for almost ten days, kept in that state by the EMH, the disease halted but her condition unchanged. Now her fevered eyes searched, boring deep into anxious eyes.

"Mommy…?"

"Oh, my little baby…you're going to get better," Kathryn whispered in an unsteady voice.

"I dreamed of an angel who had long hair. The angel smiled at me…"

"Because she knew you'd get better, sweetheart."

"I love you, Mommy…"

******* 

END PART FOUR

 

PART FIVE

He loved Kathryn. Even when he had been married to Annika, Kathryn had remained a constant in his thoughts. Sometimes he had hated Kathryn for banishing him and Annika to a Federation outpost. But he could understand that she had not wanted contact with them, to be reminded that they carried Kathryn's baby.

He had been happy with Annika. More contented than happy, he corrected himself, but it had been a good kind of contented, one in which his days and nights with Annika dimmed the longing for his former captain, his mentor, his best friend. And on those days that he had been mad at Kathryn it was because he felt the unfairness of breaking off a friendship as suddenly and as permanently as she had forced them to do.

Yet that too, he understood. Kathryn wanted to break all ties with him, with the child she helped create, the wonderful gift she had given them. That she felt she would forget, her decision to help them just that – a decision and a gesture of a gift.

But the heart was always a terrifying coward, making sure that she didn't forget and instead, made her remember more and long more for the child she knew in her heart, was hers.

He loved Kathryn. Three years ago they had reunited and married not long after that, Katie taking instantly and intuitively to the woman who was her mother in blood. And he was happier than he had been in years.

So much happier, with Katie blossoming under Kathryn's care and devotion, losing her reserve and becoming well-adjusted. Katie had family - four cousins, and Aunt Phoebe and his sister Sekaya whom Katie also adored

Now, on the eve of Christmas, Seven of Nine, the woman who mothered Katie through her first years, had given Katie a gift of life. If he doubted that Annika as she had preferred to be called during their marriage, could love her little girl this last selfless act was the proof that Annika loved Katie with her whole heart and soul.

Katie would know that.

He hadn't communicated with anyone except Kathryn after the phials carrying Annika's nanoprobes had been transported to the hospital. It was important that Katie open her eyes to see her mother first. He would see them as soon as he arrived at the hospital.

That was only minutes away. Kathryn had simply sent a message that Katie wanted to see her Daddy.

"And Kathryn?" he had asked.

"Kathryn as well. I miss you, honey…"

Her eyes had shone with relief and joy that Katie was well again. He had signed off, the searing pain in his chest reminding him that he had to see a doctor about his cracked ribs.

His heart burned fiercely at the thought that he'd see them soon. The hospital foyer provided welcome warmth after the walk from the transporter pads in the ice cold wind. Katie, he knew, would probably be sitting up in bed and most probably also demand that she go home to Indiana to put up the tree. And then the hundred and one questions she'd no doubt ask about Missy and the last of the pups that had to go to new homes, building a snowman, her gifts from her grandparents…

Yes, she'd be peppering him with questions.

This time he'd answer them all as patiently as he could.

Which, as he stepped into the ward, flew out the window. He heard their voices, yes. He saw their faces, yes. Then they all receded alarmingly and he frowned. Katie was sitting up in bed as he had thought; Kathryn sat in the chair and held Katie's hand. That he had imagined too. A sudden wave of pain hit him in the chest and he groaned. They moved further and further away as the room began to spin.

"Chakotay!"

"Daddy…?"

He felt himself sinking to the floor. After that he knew no more as dark oblivion swallowed him.

*****

He opened his eyes slowly, realising he was lying on a bed. He also realised that the pain was gone. Katie and Kathryn were both sitting on the bed, watching him.

"Daddy, you had three cracked ribs and a punctured lung. It deflated like a balloon and doctor repaired it for you. He said you'd better watch out 'cause if you don't look after yourself, you might have all your ribs cracked next time and then where will Mommy and I be? Then he told me to make you rest and said you mustn't put the angel on the tree 'cause that's my job now. How are you feeling?"

"Good afternoon…uh…is it afternoon?"

"It's morning, Daddy! You slept for twelve hours 'cause Mommy told doctor to make you sleep for twelve hours so you can feel better when you wake up!"

Kathryn's hand slipped into his. It felt safe, beloved, her smile – tender, tender smile – rocked him.

"I was out that long?"

"Yes, Daddy!"

"Sweetheart, you were very, very ill…"

"I'm much better now, Daddy. Mama helped me…"

"Mama?"

"Yes, Mama who gave birth to me. She helped me."

"I know, honey. I know…"

He gripped Kathryn's hand tighter in his.

"Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"I saw her…"

"Mama?"

He looked at Kathryn and frowned, but Kathryn kept gracing him with a beatific smile. Then she leaned closer and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"She'll tell you," Kathryn whispered.

"When I was sick," Katie started, "the angel came to me. And – and the angel said that I mustn't be afraid 'cause she's going to make sure I get better."

"An angel, huh."

"Mama was the angel 'cause the angel looked just like Mama from her pictures. The pictures with her hair long and loose. And then – and then…"

Katie's face became less animated, took on a sombre appearance. Kathryn caressed Katie's cheek, wiped the tear that rolled down. Chakotay thought how sick Katie had been only days ago, sick to the point of dying. They had all despaired. Now Katie was recovering, miraculously.

"And then?" he asked, his voice as calm as he could keep it.

"Mama said that she is happy now. She said she always loved me, Daddy."

"She did, sweetheart. She did, very much."

Katie threw herself against him, her body small and warm. He looked at Kathryn. Her eyes were full of tears. Annika Hansen, miracle worker, was at peace at last.

"Daddy?" Katie asked when the crying stopped.

"Yes, honey?"

"Do you know what I heard Grampy say? When I was so sick?"

"You heard Grampy?"

"Uh-huh."

"What did he say?"

"That the angels must bend near the Earth… Daddy, what does that mean?"

He looked questioningly at Kathryn and frowned heavily. Kathryn whose eyes had gone soft.

"Honey, it comes from an old Earth Christmas carol…"

******

END PART FIVE

 

FINALE

Indiana, Christmas morning

Kathryn woke to find herself lying snugly in Chakotay's arms, her leg thrown over his, her arm across his waist. She spent a few seconds studying him. He lay, facing her, relaxed in sleep for the first time in ten days. They had been too worried during Katie's illness to think of anything and only yesterday they could finally put up the tree.

Giving a contented sigh, she stroked Chakotay's cheek gently. She loved him so much, more than ever before. He had gone to great lengths to find help. On a stroke of inspiration he had gone to Ketarcha Prime, knowing that Annika Hansen had made some kind of provision, if not for Chakotay, then for her precious child whom they acknowledged with great humility, she loved beyond her life.

Only, Annika Hansen had difficulty transforming that emotion into outward display of affection. She was Borg. How could they fault her for that? She had tried her best.

Katie had been shown pictures of Annika and had been assured by her parents that it was okay for her to display them of she wanted to. But Katie's world was changing, and changing fast. It was her parents and grandparents, the friends at school, her cousins and extended uncles and aunts that loomed large in her life and who filled her moments.

"I don't miss her, Mommy…"

"That's okay, sweetie. Just as long as you know, okay?"

"Okay."

And that had been that. Last night had been wonderful with Chakotay loving her, their intimacy poignant, secure in their togetherness. The time had come to tell Chakotay…

"Tell me what, sweetheart?" Chakotay murmured against her bosom.

"You're awake?"

"I can hear your thoughts. We're of the same heart, didn't you know?"

Chakotay lifted his head and braced himself on his elbow, gazing lovingly into her eyes. Then he bent to kiss her, a soft, lingering kiss. She moaned with delight, but broke off the kiss with some reluctance.

"I'm happy, Chakotay, now that Katie has recovered. I'll forever be grateful that you didn't come back empty-handed from Almor IV. I'm glad that you told me about the wreckage…"

"She – she was alive for several minutes, long enough to…"

Chakotay became still, sombre.

"It's alright," she whispered, knowing how hard it must have been for him to revisit the site of the crash.

"I've saved the message for Katie to read one day, when she understands fully. Right now, she's too fired up, even though Doc told her to rest a few days, to worry about anything but her gifts."

"She'd better not – "

The next moment the door to their room flew open and Missy burst right past Katie, onto the bed. Katie followed with Missy's two remaining puppies and managed to clamber on as well. The pups were all over their mother and Katie and Kathryn gave another groan. Then Katie became suddenly very quiet, as if she remembered something.

"It's Christmas! It's my birthday. We have to open the presents now!"

"Not so fast, young lady. Taken a few moments to breathe and relax first," Chakotay chided gently.

Katie, it seemed, had other ideas. She stared at them both with big eyes.

"Mama also told me something else, Mommy…" she said in a hushed voice, a voice full of awe.

"She did?"

"Yes.

"What did she say, sweetheart?" her father asked, now wide awake and sitting upright.

"Today, I'm going to get the very best present ever."

Chakotay watched awed as Katie's hand went to Kathryn's belly and rested there.

********                                                                                                                                         

end


End file.
